Dawn of the Jedi
by Jucasta Nova
Summary: Powerful Sith lords, Jedi of ancient, come together in a clash of life through the force and the Saber
1. Chapter One

Dawn of the Jedi  
  
Dark emanations arose all around the Jedi, taking in the light as if banishing it forever. His tattered cloak was damp with acrid moisture leaking from the cold and barren walls of the ancient Sith temple. The Jedi moved with errant grace, fatigue seeping into his bones and muscles. He tried hard to hide the weariness, standing bold with a sharp grin upon his raged face, as if in hopeless defiance.  
  
Ulic smirked, "Your powers are week old friend"  
  
"It is you who are week, dying. You will not last another fight with me Jedi", the Sith's voice resonated throughout the chambers with a low hum that sent loose shards of ferocreet and dust from the triangular ceiling.  
  
"I am no Jedi" Said Ulic.  
  
Exar laughed then starred deep into Ulic's soul, seemingly judging his very spirit, "You are no sith!"  
  
As Ulic stepped forward his cloak rose slightly as the Force swirled within him, raw static wrought his body with energy. "I do not discern myself with petty ways of truth and justice! Nor do I lurk in the dark like a frightened animal."  
  
"It is you who are frightened; it is you who will die... rouge," the Sith said with pure menace in his eyes.  
  
"I am no rouge, I am Ulic Qel-Droma, son of a Jedi, son of the Sith"  
  
"So be it... I do not command your fate, nor do I change your destiny, but you leave me little choice, if you will not surrender Jedi, you. will. die!"  
  
The piercing light of the Sith's saber emerged from the mist all around, reflecting off dust and moisture, drenching the gloom around them in red. Through the Force Ulic could feel the energy from the crimson glow of the Sith's lightsaber. He turned full circle, spinning his cloak around him, pulling his own Saber from his belt with a wave of his hand and igniting it with a sharp hiss. The two Sabers clashed with an intense spark which glimmered across the Sith tattoo of Ulic's nemesis.  
  
"You are afraid Kun"  
  
"You are weak Jedi! You will not survive!"  
  
Their sabers cut the air with a deadly silence, vaporizing the dense mist, leaving a luminescent glow behind each swing. Ulic closed his eyes and used the Force to guide his every movement. He twirled the saber from palm to palm, end facing behind and forwards as he moved with hast, in and out of a twirl, lunging here and there, never hitting his target.  
  
Their Sabers clashed and they held them there, pulsating with the screaming resonant energy. Exar Kun gritted his teeth and spoke, hiding his own fear and weariness, "The Force is weak within you, and whatever is left in you is dying!"  
  
Ulic found new energy deep within his soul to push the limits of his Jedi powers one last time. The air seamed to thicken around them. Exar opened his eyes a moment before he knew what was happening, and that hesitation wrought his doom. Ulic's saber flung across the blade of the Sith as he shot his hand blindly onto Exar Kun's hilt, flicking a silver button. Exar's saber sputtered out and the room unmixed in shades of green and red to a bold still emerald which shone bright in Ulic's eyes. Kun looked at him with helpless rage. The green glow then fizzed with a touch of crimson that splayed itself from the back cloak of Exar Kun.  
  
"Hu... ug... mmmmmm.... How. did you...beat me...?"  
  
"I told you, I am not a Jedi. I hate you, Sithspawn! You die in vain; look me in the eye so you can see the man who slew your soul, the man who grips your dying body!"  
  
". mmm... you are... nothing!"  
  
Ulic roared in a fury of rage and hatred stemming from the dark side of the Force. But a deep and sorrow filled call discerned him from tearing the heart out of Kun. Ulic dropped the blood drenched body and curled onto the floor.  
  
"I'm sorry!" Ulic's words echoed like tectonic waves emanating across the surface of the barren planet. Hawkbats stirred from the stone pillars and alcoves throughout the temple, reeling away from the vibrations of sorrow and anger, from the Dark Side of the Force.  
  
"I am no Jedi... I am sorry father! I couldn't save you."  
  
Ulic dropped and let out a cry of mourning as deep and dark as the Sith he slew.  
  
"Never again" he said whilst tears of light fell like feathers onto the cold flagstone floor... 


	2. Chapter Two

The twin suns burned like hot steam across Ulic's shoulders and he trudged wearily across the barren and battered landscape. Behind him, the ancient Sith temple slowly crumbled away in the harsh conditions and the occasional sand storms that swept across the orange and yellow surface of the dieing planet. Ulic wore his damp Jedi cloak swathed in the blood-soaked garments of the now extinct Sith, Exar Kun. Ulic paused to get a good breath of the thin air and to wipe the dry tears from his torn and tattered face. His hand was wet with the quickly drying blood, re-bathed a blackish crimson when he tightened the garments around himself, protecting his sore skin and deep wounds and gashes. He looked beyond the horrid carnage of bodies strewn across the open dunes. They had all once been breathing, serving Kun, but they turned their backs on him and the empire he was building; a Golden age of the Sith that would ravage the universe and spread its death seed far beyond the reaches of any Jedi...  
  
Ulic stopped on the edge of a cliff overlooking a canyon and the endless horizon far beyond, deep in gold and subdued in red from the death floating throughout the air. "Master... Can you here me?" Ulic held his breath and closed his eyes as a tear formed and fell, rolling down his check, stinging the open wounds. Ulic watched as the tear dropped and pattered on the ground, evaporating in a pip of dust. "I call for you, will you not answer?"  
  
Ulic looked toward the ground in shame, but quickly lifted his head high in defiance of self pity. That was weak, dishonorable. Ulic's father became a stronger voice in his head now than his Master, Arca. He thought only of pleasing his late father and mother. And his sister, who came to rescue Ulic from the dark workings of Kun and the Sith, to save him from himself. But she had failed, so had her father... Ulic did not go back. Turning himself against the Jedi. But now, looking on at this dead panorama of blood and flesh, Ulic took it upon himself, knowing only he could bring an end to Kun and his dark workings, to search for the remnants and apprentice of Exar Kun. He would not fail this time...  
  
"I have shunned you to long my Master..."  
  
A faint echo of a voice tingled around in the Force, beckoning Ulic to listen...  
  
~ Who is your Master Ulic Qel-Droma? Surly it cannot be me, I am a Jedi, yet you call with all your sorrow and disbelief in yourself... Should I not answer you?~  
  
"Master Arca. I...." Ulic bowed his head and fell to one knee before continuing. "I have slain the Sith, I have rid our galaxy of its nemesis"  
  
~ But you have not Ulic. What sensible thought allows you not to see this?~  
  
"I have slain the Sith Lord Exar Kun my Master. He is no more, and soon thus the very name of the Sith will be forever lost in time within our galaxy." Ulic hesitated to open his eyes, afraid to look at his Master if here where to be standing before him, sparkling with a faint luminescence...  
  
~ You have not slain the dark lord; he lives, still within you. You gave yourself to him Ulic, you are not a Jedi! ~  
  
"Master! I have redeemed myself to the Jedi, I am free, I will not live in darkness anymore!"  
  
~ You are dead Ulic; your soul has been corrupted, your mind tainted with the sent and taste of blood. You are a reckless warrior seeking a truth you cannot have nor possibly hope to find. ~  
  
"I have many truths, and I am very much alive Master. Where it not better to see the light while immersed in the dark?"  
  
~ There is no light once you close your mind to the Jedi; there is only hatred and corruption... Dare I feel the spirit you encompass now. ~  
  
"If you need justification on the validity of what I have told you, then so be it, I am open to your "  
  
~ No, you have destroyed but a minion of the Dark Side, the Force is not yet in balance. Go now; speak not of me again Ulic. Find yourself before you seek me again...~  
  
The Force rippled with the waves of disruption as Arca disappeared into the spinning sand. Ulic opened his eyes and stared out on into the distance seeking not what he knew to find... He turned to a crescent gorge in the flagstone rock a few parsecs beyond. The silver and tan gleam of the Sun Gem glinted lightly within the canyon, its engines powered up with a strong yet precise focus of the Force from Ulic's mind. He would leave this bared and wasted planet, and travel somewhere away from all the chaos and uncertainty, to the only place he knew he would be accepted as who he is, no Jedi, nor Sith. 


End file.
